Posts tagged “people”

I think it’s about time someone from the Republican campaign just took the time to lay it all out there. Just tell the people what is up with what Republicans believe. I’m not Karl Rove or anything, but I think it ought to come from Mitt Romney himself and P.D.Q. Here’s what I would say if I were him.

Hello, my name is Mitt, and I’m a rich man. I’m standing before you and I admit it. Yes, my name is Mitt and I AM a rich man. I’ll own it.

There is certainly a lot of discussion out there about being rich or poor. That people who are rich will always be rich and that poor people will always be poor. Rich people do nothing for anybody but themselves and poor people can do nothing for themselves. Is that how you see it? Funny, I always thought America was about poor people who thought they could be rich if they really wanted to be and then did. America is where we break through those glass ceilings and say nothing is always the way it is.

Let me tell you about two sons I know. They both worked for Dell Computers way back before Dell was DELL. One man’s father was a middle to upper income earner, a CFO, while the other’s father came from Mexico as a migrant worker picking watermelons. One day these sons tell their fathers to invest in Dell because they see customized computers as the future. So the dads do this, each father taking what they think they can spend on the investment. Now you might imagine the migrant worker invested less than the wealthier CFO, but we’ll never know for sure. He was unable to speak much English and had no idea what a Dell computer was until his son started working there. Some years later, the CFO father grew “un-enchanted” with the computer company and decided to cash out of his slow if not motionless investment. The migrant worker dad on the other hand, out of love and respect for his son, faithfully kept what little money he had in Dell despite his poor means. He just worked harder to make ends meet. A couple years later, Dell Computers turned the whole technology market on its head. Stock price for this company skyrocketed and then split… then split again. The migrant watermelon picker was now a multi-millionaire and the CFO dad was just as moderately wealthy as he always was. In America, both had equal opportunity to be extremely wealthy despite their backgrounds. There was no insider trading- just faith in a good business.

In America, poor people can become rich people and rich people can become poor people. There is no guarantee; there is only the right of pursuit. Now if you take the right of pursuit away, by telling people there is no chance so why pursuit…all you do is guarantee that most people will try less to succeed and try less to pursuit great things. I pursued great things, became rich and now that allows me to help you, uninhibited by my background. I heard a citizen say the other day, to a reporter, “Well Mitt is rich. Why would he want to bother with such a hard job as the President?” And the answer to that is because I can. And I can do this without having to be tempted by corruption. No one could ever pay me enough to do harm to my country. There isn’t one thing I need or want in my life more than the opportunity to save this country from ruin.

There are people in charge right now that clearly have no idea what they are doing. The polls show we agree we are not heading in the right direction. I understand the Obama Administration’s pride and why they are so frustrated by this failure. They had a revolutionary plan. Unfortunately, it’s not a working plan. It never was. It has failed because they don’t want to admit when they are wrong and they don’t want help. Have you ever seen this show called Kitchen Nightmare’s with a chef by the name of Gordon Ramsey? This guy comes in and tells the restaurant owners either that their kitchen is filthy, they are spending too much money, or too little money on good produce, their behavior towards their employees and customers need to change, the food sucks or all of the above. In each case the restaurant is going bankrupt, the owners are in debt up to their ears, they’re about to lose their home because that’s tied to the restaurant too, but still… because they had such great plans for the restaurant and it was their “dream” they don’t want to listen. They get angry. They get violent. They literally hate this guy Ramsey because they think he’s all high and mighty. They think he couldn’t possibly understand where they are coming from, the whole bit. He comes in, gives them all these alternative options. He makes changes to the menu and the decor. Overnight he makes real physical changes and helps change their attitudes whether they will admit it will work or not and then faithfully waits to see what happens. Suddenly everyone likes the food and surprise, the business grows. The families end up naming their children after Gordon and all live happily ever after. Now Gordon Ramsey isn’t an American citizen, so he can’t be nominated for President, so don’t even try it! Now here’s the thing. He goes back six months later to check on them and those owners who decided to be stubborn and go back to their old way and not listen to the expert went under. Those who refused to try and trust someone they thought was “out of touch” with them, lost out big time. Never to be recovered.

I don’t want that to be America. I am rich because I’m good at business and we need to change the way we do business in America. Forgive me for saying this but the majority of America’s problems right now are about money. We need the poor and the rich working together in America like we used to. Now those who have the money are literally unable to use it. People cannot get the loans they need. Workers cannot get paid. The way America used to do business is no longer possible because of the way the current administration chooses to run it. I’ll say it again. They don’t know what they are doing. People don’t want to do business with us anymore, in other words, people are going to stop coming to our restaurant if we don’t get it functioning as a modern, fresh and comfortable place to be.

They are telling you that by doing things right, what the Republicans think is right, that it will put hard working minorities “back in chains.” There is no skin color of the Republican Party. Anyone who says there is, is backwards. They want you to look backwards too. Doing it over and over and over again is intolerable. The hatemongering has got to stop! If you took us all and stuck us in a blender we’d be a very nice shade of brown. Our expertise, our experience, our love for our country and the great things about it has no class status. “Wise men profit more by fools, than fools by wise men; for wise men avoid the mistakes of fools, but fools do not imitate the good examples of wise men.” – CATO THE ELDER, c. 200 B.C. If you don’t want to work with rich people you’re missing out. If you don’t want to work with poor people, you’re missing out. Great educations come from working with both. That is why America has for centuries been so ahead of the curve. Our tolerance of each other, our abilities to make our differences work for us, make us smarter.

As people have actually tried to disrupt the harmony and our strides with civil rights, making us stop to question whether we should continue to keep working together, our country has become stagnate and numb. But here’s the trick. It’s only on the surface. The real truth about this whole campaign thing is that under all this media coverage of class warfare and anger, we are real people. We are a real country. We don’t hate each other. We’re angry because we feel we can’t make a difference in our financial status or communities. Opportunity has literally been snatched from our grasp. Because of fear, doors- as in opportunity, as well as the real doors to our homes and businesses… like our favorite restaurants are literally closing every day.

Speaking of closing doors. There is something I would really like to stop and that’s the bold face lies being told by those working for the Democratic Party to confuse you about the Republican policy. Republicans don’t hate gay people and we don’t have an ongoing war against women. We will not make it our focus to repeal gay marriage. Nor will we make it our focus to repeal Roe v. Wade. Furthermore, in case you were curious, none of our policies make the environment more polluted or the globe warmer either.

If that’s what you are afraid of, then you aren’t living in the real world. That’s where the Republicans and I live. I’m going to be real honest with you right now. So listen up. Our focus is saving the economy right now. Without an economy, we can’t do jack. That’s just the way it is. All the smart cars and healthcare in the world won’t save us if our economy collapses. This is what Republicans stand for right now. We will fix this problem carefully and methodically. To do this, despite popular belief, Republicans will not throw Granny off a cliff. I don’t even know how those actors got that wheelchair with granny up there. No, seriously. In fact, we only plan to cut spending on Medicaid by 3% compared to what Obama wants to spend. That’s hardly reducing grandma to eating cat food. In fact, once we get rid of Obamacare we can put the 716 billion Obama’s plan steals from seniors back in the Medicare pot. Another fact is that if we continue with Obama’s healthcare plan, Medicare for seniors will be completely insolvent in 12 years.

The model we are looking at for offering everyone a healthcare choice is doing better in use than we ever anticipated. It has cost 43% less than what we thought it would cost to implement and young people get to choose whether they want Medicare run by the government or get the equivalent of that cost to use towards a private insurance of their choice. This will drive the cost down with the good old’ American way. Competition. Competition means choice for everyone. Competition, in case you were wondering, isn’t the same as fighting each other.

If we can hold onto our thoughtless blurts of disgust and spontaneous angry reactions to the little stuff for just a while, we find we aren’t that upset after all. When we don’t waste the time responding to every word each other say with anger, we listen to the other guy a little more and understand where they are coming from a little bit better. Americans don’t ask each other whether we are rich or poor when we are fighting for our country. It’s not our style. We may not agree, but a compromise can surely be explored a lot easier on that safer frontier.

We built this country together. It seems like we haven’t built anything in a long time. That’s what it feels like. I know we can build a great future together. Would you rather let the government say they’ll come up with something to help you out and you don’t need to worry about what it is or what it costs? Or would you rather be involved by learning from and working with your countrymen to build something you believe in? I know, in fact I will guarantee you, as a successful business man who honestly cares about each and every one of you, if we all work harder, if we all work harder on working together we’ll all be a lot richer.

Stand with me. Support me and the other Republicans in your state. Don’t let them close more doors on opportunity. Let’s make more doors of opportunity! Thank you and God Bless America.

Weaving through the insanely crowded lobby of the school theatre I felt like I was taking my initiation into “stage motherhood” quite well. My two five year olds were scheduled to do two, yes, two “performances” in the Best of Broadway 2012 Showcase and I was thanking God they had managed to stay in relatively good physical shape before this day. Only minor visible cuts and bruises from biking and scooting too vigerously. Costume fittings, preordering lunch, preorder flowers, preorder tickets, find fishnet hose for 5 year olds,(which was actually surprisingly and maybe a little frighteningly easier than I thought it would be), dress rehearsal, photos, video, invite the family and friends, etc. There were so many things we as parents, a.k.a. mom, had to do to get to this day and here we were. Registering for college courses at The University of Texas was easier than this and probably cheaper too.

My husband sits and waits in the cafeteria comparing how much information he really knows about what is happening that day with the other dads. He is starting to get the picture that he is clueless. It’s not really fair to let him find out that way, but hey. It’s his own damn fault for never listening in matters such as this. I had to do all the leg work. Why should he get to walk around with all the confidence of a peacock while I try to figure out how to get my kid’s crazy hair to stay in a tight low bun for more than five minutes? Does HE he have to worry about the twenty sixteen year old ballet students needing to make a costume change giving him the evil eye because his kid decided she had to take a major five minute dumpy in the one bathroom five minutes before show time? NO, I don’t think so. Did he have to peel his daughters off of him as he placed them in the small prison room filled with screaming tiera wearing toddlers and preschoolers wearing itchy costumes? And I have to say, “Have fun for the next three hours, okay?” As the moms too afraid to leave their kids, I mean “volunteer” moms stay and play with their iPhones and iPads I have to convince myself my kids are perfectly safe and supervised. For the sake of dance class? How is this worth it I’m thinking to myself, but on the outside I’m a proud mom ready to see my kids “have fun.” Does my husband still have the gall to ask me if I knew what I was doing? Yes, he did. Is he still alive you ask? Yes, but just barely.

Finally, they let the parents and obligated loved ones into the theatre. I think I’m so cool because we find the perfect spot, center stage. An hour and a half into the show, I’m not feeling so cool. I haven’t seen my kids perform yet, so I’m getting anxious. Oh, here they come! There they are! Oh, they’re so cute! They don’t have a clue of what they’re doing. One of my daughters is trying her hardest to keep up with the other girls but seems to be going the opposite direction no matter which way the other girls go. My other daughter, nicknamed the “dancing queen” at our house, mouth wide open, eyes wide open, literally looking like a terrified squirrel running around in circles trying to avoid an oncoming truck. Maybe 30 seconds later, it’s all over. THAT was awesome, I’m thinking. Actually, I was really excited they didn’t just stand there like many of the performances I had already been so fortunate to be a captured audience for. Obviously they had paid attention for a couple of minutes of the four hundred dollars’ worth of classes we paid for.

We couldn’t wait to tell them how proud we were. We had flowers and pride just a bursting. But wait what’s this? We have a couple more performances to watch? Okay. These kids are pretty cute. I think I can sit here and watch a bit more, but soon I’ve got to get out and get the girls’ lunch for them. They’ve already been without real food for going on six hours now. They should be really ravenous back there and starting to eye up the “volunteers” by now.

So, I sit through ten more back to back juvenile performances and I’m about to go crazy. I look and on either side of me is completely packed with old people and I don’t know who designed this theatre, but they should be shot. There was as little room to walk between the seats as humanly possible, and there were no isles to break up the number of people you had to crawl over to get to out. With no more than 5 seconds between performances I was never going to get out before the lights came back up. I never thought in a million years I would be one of those rude people who walk out of a performance no matter how bad it was, but I did. I had to. My kids were starving to death, drowning in a prison of hairspray and tutus. When did being over privileged become so strenuous? I think I had had gotten about all the sentimental value I was going to get out of this pony show. To think they still had yet to do another thirty second part in the costume parade.

I made my way over the legion of butt sore grandparents and back stage to my girls. I was overwhelmed with relief. One of my daughters spotted me right off the bat and latched on to me like a little sea urchin. I quickly “checked them out” of the tiny dancers’ green room and headed off to the cafeteria where I was first in line to get them their lunch. We peacefully and a little bit guiltily ate our lunch while everyone else (including my husband and parents) were still pretending to enjoy the show or stuck backstage in their itchy tights. I couldn’t have been more proud of my beautiful girls and me. I did awesome. Everything from there on out was gravy. I knew my kids wouldn’t have to wait long to do their scary squirrel impressions and we’d be out of there.

We were going to leave this experience proud mostly because we didn’t quit even when our kids begged us to let them quit. Were we so proud we can’t wait to sign our kids up for dance next year? Let’s just say we had our professionally filmed DVD and pictures, memory complete.

Why do we do this again? Why do we feel we have to spend a small fortune to give them a little culture, a little fine art appreciation at this age? I’m pretty sure the secret is out. There are lots of parents who are not creative, but who want their kids to be creative and will pay a crap load to try and achieve that goal. The hard truth is, I don’t think we get our money’s worth out of it, but we feel like we’re not giving them all the resources to be as talented or at least as well rounded as we wished they could possibly be. Parents that have been through this tell me if they had known what they know now, they would have just put their kids in a costume parade in the garage and took pictures and video and call it a day. They’re totally right! Forget that the improvisational performance would probably have been more entertaining than what we had just suffered through, but for half of the price we spent total, I could’ve bought the girls some tutus, some boas, some hair paint, slapped some mascara and red lipstick on them and been done with it. Hell, if we held the parade down on 6th street people might just pay ME.

Oh, to be a parent in the suburbs with everything at your fingertips. Businesses tailor made to make you spend every last dime on over-stimulating your young child. “Please pay us to subject your child to the cutest form of torture you’ve ever laid eyes on!” “Hurry up and register your child today!” “There are only limited spots available!” “Don’t let your child feel left out!” I tell you. It’s not that the quality of the education, costumes or the organization was lacking. For the older kids who choose to do this, it’s fabulously realistic when it comes to learning how the theatre really works. However, if you have any inkling of an expectation of seeing your under-five year old “wow” your friends and family because you have your kids involved in some high dollar activities, you’re probably going to be sorely disappointed. No disrespect to their wonderful teacher, who God knows had her work cut out for her with my girls, but I’m not so sure the garage costume parade wouldn’t have given them just as much education in the ways of the theatre as the months of lessons we drove to and fro to in sickness and tears or not. Why couldn’t we have put more effort into making our own show? The quality of the family time would at least have been higher rated. We didn’t even get the pleasure of watching them practice as “distracting parents” were not allowed at rehearsals. Sure it’s “free time” for us, but where’s the involvement except for me donating my wallet, my taxi services and my sanity?

So as we’re walking out of the theatre my husband and I thank the girls for their effort as they noticeably tried very hard to do something that resembled a routine. They smiled proud of their hard work and we reassure them there will be no such torture in the near future. I say to the girls, “Would you maybe like to try singing lessons or piano next time? There won’t be any of this all-day, stuff. We know that was hard on you.” My tiny dancer turns and says to me with her serious face as she had clearly been thinking about it since she walked off that stage, “No. Next time I think I’m going to do Karate.” Oh Lord, have mercy.

Does anyone know what’s going on here? Do you know how many Republicans have decided that they are too tired to watch any of the Republican debates or any kind of news about the campaign anymore? Try like everyone. All I know is I’m more than turned off and it’s not because of the ugliness like sweet Mrs. Bush Sr. says. I don’t think it’s all that bad considering baggage does need to be aired. You don’t want bed bugs creeping into your house later. You know what I’m saying? I think she just said that because that’s what old ladies say when they can’t say “this is a fuck”. Pardon my French. I think she feels like many of us do, that we may have the wrong candidates in the lead and we’re not quite sure what to do about it.

But the great thing is, it’s not totally over! Now that the “ugliness” is relatively passed us, we should re-look at our candidates, don’t you think? This kind of illusion that it’s down to two candidates Romney and Santorum is merely that, an illusion. For one, I don’t want us to think this race is over because we’re clearly not happy with who we are going towards choosing as the Republican candidate. It’s pretty obvious that that is the main reason why Republicans are sick of watching. We’ve got to that point again where we have gone through the traditional motions, gotten towards the end of that process and realized we’ve got a product we don’t want. The Republican Party can’t admit they’re going the wrong direction when they’re trying to win the election despite who the front running candidate is. The Republican win is the main goal. I know this.

But maybe the main goal of choosing the right Republican candidate should be getting the right candidate for what happens after the election in 2012. I think the candidates were correct in the beginning when they all said if you elect any of us it would be better than letting President Obama continue to be the president for four more years. I still agree with that. What I think is happening now is kind of like… Well, have you ever been baking something new and you follow the recipe, you followed everything that the recipe said exactly. You get to the end of it and it’s nothing like you thought it would be. It doesn’t taste good, it’s falling apart and you’ve got a party to serve. How embarrassing.

We’ve faithfully depended on our process of choosing a candidate and here we are getting towards the end and oh no… we can tell it’s starting to look funny. Frankly, I think Romney scares the hell out of most of us. And Santorum is just so …Magoo. I don’t know what else to say. We have gotten ourselves into a process that when you come right down to it is not a good recipe. The recipe is very much a beauty contest or a popularity contest and it likens itself to a lot like a High School Class President election. But wait a minute, we don’t really just want to elect someone we think is the most popular or who we see is going to be a winner do we? This can’t be about seeing ourselves standing next to what looks like a guaranteed winner. That’s Pseudos.

The real candidate for an American President is someone who still carries that old-school-American, Reaganistic spirit we love and miss. We need someone who can be calmly strong and who can be smart in high pressure situations. You know what? I think this man we’re looking for is a nerd, and an arrogant one at that. The one none of us liked in High School and in fact the exact opposite of who we would vote for class president. But see, we’re all grown up now and we can appreciate the need for someone who is completely confident in his intelligence and bold with his ideas of fixing this joint. If you’ve ever had to deal with an engineer you know this simple rule: don’t ask an engineer to fix something if you can’t deal with the correct way to fix something. We really need to set our pride aside and start paying attention to the person we would go to for real answers; especially if we needed them in a pinch.

It’s funny, but when people believe their time is short, they put all stereotypes and prejudices aside to get to what is important. When we’re failing math and we’re about to be kicked off the team, who do we go to for study help? Who’s the one we have to go to when we were too lazy to do the homework? Who always has the vocabulary list for the quiz? The nerd.

Of course I’m talking about Newt Gingrich. If you don’t think Newt’s a nerd, more power to you, but please note that this means you too are a nerd. J Newt is the guy that has worked his butt off all his life and has been getting the straight A’s. He has been paying attention, he’s been taking the notes, he’s been taking the crap too and still, we’re not willing to give the nerd some credit? Hey, this is America. We’re not like that. Our country of America is the country that holds up the nerd with pride. Revenge of The Nerds is one of our classic movies for a reason. There are those who still hold Booger up there as one of their all-time favorite, All-American heroes just based on his burping talent, among other things. You know who you are. Let’s do this! Let’s raise up the appreciation of nerd abilities this day because what we need now is someone who knows how to do some basic accounting, some basic economics, some basic history and maybe some basic science would be good too. The thing about nerds is they revel in a challenge, in the unexpected. They are successful because they have the mindset to completely surprise people with something spectacular when the people whole-heartedly expected the opposite.

Hold the phone. Wait a minute here. Newt is no Booger. He’s actually got some pretty cool skills that make him a super nerd. Like Clark Kent! He’s a diplomat. Not many nerds are diplomats. He’s got a great sense of humor. Not many nerds have senses of humor. He’s got a hot wife. Not many nerds have that. Needless to say, he’s got good qualities people and I think we need to start thinking about this seriously in these last few races. This is no time to bail out on the process. They can matter. We need to make this cake work and can if we can get around to doing something about what we really want for the future. Not just about what we think is good for the popular election, I should say. You should be very worried when the main stream media starts endorsing a certain Republican and it also just so happens to be the same way we’re going in our process of elimination. To search for who will be the most popular or electable is just following into the Democratic Party’s ways of life. That does not get us anywhere.

We’ve got two Republican candidates that all day debate about who is the most conservative. Meanwhile, we’re thinking uh, Romney and Santorum are both too damn conservative. Preaching to the choir is an understatement. They continue to show us they believe that we will not elect someone who may be a little bit of an underdog. Actually, this is a quality in candidates Americans tend to empathize with more. President Obama is a direct result of that. Apparently Republican campaign advisors think the Republican Party is all about being conservative and I think they’ve missed the mark completely. The majority of swing votes are going to come from the middle to left of the Republican and Independent voters. I’d be sad to think this concentration on conservativism was not just a fight against President’s liberal policies but also someone’s single-handed wet dream of eliminating the purpose of the Tea Party all together with this election as well. That could be a very costly mistake.

Albeit I think if we happen to elect someone who is super conservative I don’t believe they can ever get us to the point where all mainstream views are threatened. Because we are way the hell over to left and getting kind of out-of-control, it would probably just swing us enough over to the right to make us more in the middle.

Newt by all means is what I would consider your average conservative. I don’t see how his baggage is much different than many Republicans I know. We all have a history full of mistakes. (That’s how we get to be so wise.) And since we’ve gotten over Newt Gingrich’s history of his many divorces, his obvious stray from conservatism, I think we’re definitely steering in clearer waters. Seriously, is that’s all you got? A man who has lived in Washington DC for as long as he lived and that’s all you got? He’s a freakin’ angel.

Newt Gingrich reminds me of America. He is smart. He is observant and is maybe not necessarily who you want to like. Kind of like the nerd you want to just stick in a locker sometimes because he so arrogant about what he knows in that big ol’ Q-tip head of his. He kind of goes off on these tangents where we can’t follow. So we think, is he trying to make us feel stupid? That’s essentially why we don’t like nerds, but in this case we really need that. We need someone who’s ability to think out-of-the-box surpasses the average individual. I have not seen that from Romney. I’ve not seen not that from Santorum. Even as the leader, Romney tends to do what he knows is popular and what you know he needs to do to get the job done systematically. I don’t see him doing anything that inspires me or inspires our country.

I don’t see Santorum inspiring our country to the point where we are all on the same page. I think he already has gotten himself into the conundrum of causing division just by simply falling into some of these traps that the left wing media has laid for him. Newt is the one person who has shined on both of those points in that he has not repelled/excluded anyone with his personal beliefs and he’s caused people to be inspired. You’ve seen that with the two standing ovations. (Now I think he’s trying not to get them for the thought that they may start to look contrived.) And he has also been the only one to be able to show some kind of balls when it comes to standing up to the media. Those three things alone say this is our dude. We need someone who’s going to help us step out of this left wing media charged box of self-imprisonment. Let’s not govern ourselves by the Middle East’s, the European, the East’s, the west coast’s or the east coast’s opinions and prejudices of us. We can no longer afford to do that.

The real candidate for an American President is someone who still carries that old-school Reaganistic spirit we love and miss; someone who can be strong and who can be smart in pressure situations. You know what? I think this man we’re looking for is a nerd, and an arrogant one at that. We need someone who is completely confident in his intelligence and bold with his ideas of fixing this joint.

And the only man who is shown any kind of inkling of an ability to do that is Newt Gingrich and we have little time to show him and the country that he is our man. So if you’re out there and you’re able to vote or you’re able to do something about this please root for Newt!

I think a Newt Gingrich/Perry or a Gingrich/Palin ticket would be strong… to very strong. In a way, a Gingrich/Palin ticket would maybe remind Americans they had a second chance to erase the mistake they made last time. I’m just sayin’. Some said that Palin was the reason why McCain lost the election in ‘08, but we all know that wasn’t it. The left-wing media just said that to try and take down a female conservative and the McCain campaign needed a convenient scapegoat for failure. The overall reason McCain lost the election for Republicans was the overwhelming weakness the people began to see in him.

Unfortunate as it was, at the same time Palin was announced his running mate, McCain suddenly became very vulnerable looking on conservative issues as well as appearing weak in his physical health. Both attributed to his appearance of being the weaker candidate when compared with Obama. I think again the Republican campaign advisers missed the mark on what our idea of what we as Americans (not as individuals) identify with.

McCain campaigned as the hero that he is. Unfortunately, not all American heroes are built alike when it comes to what the American people see as heroes they would want as the President. Americans are actually more taken with the ordinary American hero more so than the P.O.W. super-sacrificial soldier hero of lore. Of course we hold our military, our soldiers to the highest degree of honor and standards for that matter, but then again we don’t hold ourselves to that standard. I think we all tend to want to have a President that is a hero but also somebody we can still identify with. He or she needs to have the appearance of having walked in our shoes for a bit. Romney does not fit this shoe, and Santorum seems to be wearing elf shoes. It may not be the truth, but what the people are seeing in this case does matter.

This generation of Republicans identify with the real beneficial “change” that took place in the late 80’s and also with Americans that remind them of a more Reaganesque time. I think Gingrich has got that hands down and that Sarah Palin adds no weakness or loftiness to the image whatsoever. Americans are leaders not followers. Some of our leaders just happen to be nerds. Go Newt! Go!

In the old days you could look at a person’s face and tell they were lying to you. That’s where we get the old phrase “look me in the eye and tell me you’re not lying.” Because we used to feel bad about telling a lie to someone’s face. Now days our culture has learned that little secret and we simply use it to lie better. For example, the other day my daughter was four, almost five. She is telling a story. She’s very talented with her words and she makes up fun little imaginative stories (like her mama). But whenever she gets to a subject that’s maybe inappropriate, for example she says something to the effect of, I had a little friend named Jane and she died. I usually tell her that it’s not nice to talk about someone who died. I said, “That’s not really a fun story. How about we tell about a happy story?” And she says, “No mommy it’s not a story. It’s the truth.” In the back of my mind I’m thinking, Dear Lord my child is about to say she sees dead people. So I take a deep breath and I tell her I know for a fact that she doesn’t know anyone at her school that died the other day and because of that fact I know she’s not telling the truth. But the scariest part was that at this time she gets very adamant that there was a person by this name and that it was her friend who died and it was at school, huff, huff, huff. She was so convincing about her fictional story I became worried that she was developing a skill that makes lying not any different in her book then telling a story she just wished was the truth or even something as innocent as letting her very vivid imagination take over.

When I confronted her more sternly about the lie she became even more adamant and probably worried I guess more about the consequences of what she had said rather than the fact that she was telling me something that wasn’t true with a lot more conviction than I was comfortable with. She could’ve been telling me that there was a purple rhinoceros at her school making cookies and it wouldn’t have made a difference. The way that she looked at me and then started crying in her boldface lie made me pause. What can you do? Honestly. Your angel, poo-bear, little baby, wonderful girl is telling a story like Stephen King which is both inspiring and admiral but at the same time the conviction behind it is questionable. Either it’s entertaining to her or something far more manipulative. Either way I want to make sure she knows what manipulative language like lies do.

That got me thinking about what a friend had told me when I first started writing Pseudos 101. He told me “Well, if were talking about false and lies, you may have to define truth.” I thought, oh crap. I wasn’t a philosophy major. Why the hell would anyone want to study that? Anything attempting to tell people what is the absolute truth is completely subjective and I believe personal to each individual. How am I to ever convince people of what they believe is the truth? Who does that? My beliefs will never be more than just a story to them. Even the definition of evangelical in the Bible means simply share your story. It does not mean try to convince people your truth is the only truth there is. See, Jesus knew that cake wouldn’t bake.

People are always going to know what they know in their heart to believe based on their own perceptions. We are a conglomeration of prejudices. We hear what we want to hear. We want what we want. We need what we need and we believe what we want to believe. Wars have been waged since man was able to throw his own poop over what each of them believe is the truth. I think my frustration of defining truth for the world is therefore warranted.

What it comes down to is that many think a simple twist of words is hardly something to make a fuss over. We all just occasionally want to have something sound a little better than it really is or look a little better than it really is so we can get a little ahead. We’re just trying to keep up with everyone else. However there is cause to be really worried about lying becoming so common in our marketing, in our government and our judicial system. Not to put too fine a point on it, the way lawyers win cases and the way clients who are on trial conduct themselves morally speaking is becoming deplorable in many instances. That’s just one example. Our culture is in danger of changing the basic instincts we have about what is really dangerous to us.

So maybe we shouldn’t worry about what each other think is the truth. Maybe that plan is moot. And then it hit me. The definition of truth is whatever isn’t false. What we should be worried about is how we from this point on, decipher what is false. Like I said our culture is getting wise to how they manipulate people. We are getting so wise to how we manipulate each other that it almost seems like an instinctive type of survival. And so really what this book is about is helping you identify what is probably false information. If people are getting better at lying then people need to also get better at deciphering lying. Learn to recognize it and learn to stay out of its reach.

Artificiality is specifically a problem because we are becoming more and more saturated in our society by things that are false. Let’s say, anything that is artificial applies to whatever we think of as false in a physical nature or a philosophical manner. At the same time what we consider true in nature because we can feel it, affects what we philosophically feel is true. And we, instead of getting in touch with nature, we are tending to be more often surrounded by environments that are less natural and less concrete to our understanding of what is really real. I guess a good metaphor for this would be how when our 36th President L.B.J. was so entrenched in what you can only imagine is Washington DC’s level of manipulative pressure and how he used to have to escape, literally escape, to the rural countryside in Texas. This is where he claims several times that he felt more in the “real world” than anywhere else. I think he was more in touch with who he really was and his true purpose when was immersed in that wholesome Texas environment. He felt he could come back to the real world when he was in the country and not in D.C. because of this very argument that we can be oversaturated with artificiality. Hence, this is why we need to learn how to protect ourselves from that environment and thus the creation of Pseudos 101.

The base of the Liberal secularist philosophy seems to depict the belief that nothing cataclysmic will ever happen. Please don’t confuse this with their hissy-fit over global warming. Global warming is not an eminent cataclysm that will end all life as we know it. It’s a marketing theme. These people thrive on bleeding heart stories and pessimism, but have the gall to call a conservative who speaks out passionately about America going to hell in a handbasket, over-reacting. They truly believe if something so bad and destructive were to happen, and if it couldn’t be taken care of on the spot with money, they submit to the “we are all f-ed anyway” philosophy. Well, that’s just a brilliant plan!

Do you know that there is a new term for people like me? Yes, I just heard it. There’s actually a new reality show coming out about people like me. Shows how quick on the uptake I am. I’m called a “Prepper.” Yes, that’s short for preparer. You know, as in someone who prepares for the America as we know it to collapse. We are a closet-bound bunch, for the most part. Because, A. The term “survivalist” has a lot of negative stereotypes attached to it these days and B. we don’t want your punk ass showing up at our farm looking for food because you were too stupid and too proud to PREPARE for yourself. Not lazy, just too proud. Well, if you know me, you know I’m not too proud to tell you you’re stupid. I’m used to taking that kind of humiliating action. So here it is.

Go ahead! Live for the moment and don’t worry about the consequences of the future. It’s not a stretch to think a lot of people live based on what they see in movies. I’m guilty of this in some ideological respects but I’m talking about the sheer imitation of people’s behavior in movies. Isn’t it funny how you never see anyone in the movies wearing a seatbelt? I hate to call a director irresponsible for such a minor detail in the scheme of making a whole movie and all. And maybe it’s just me but, I just want to say, don’t they know they are portraying the message over and over again that it is unnecessary to wear your seatbelt and that it also makes you look uncool. Of course they do, because that’s what they think. I think that would be an interesting poll question for Hollywood people. “Do you wear your seatbelt?” (Seriously, please wear a seatbelt even if the people in the movies don’t.) I kid you not, I still hear the argument that if you were to get in a bad accident, you wouldn’t be able to get out in a hurry. Like they’re Indiana Jones or something; headed for the Grand Canyon. Uh, on a road that takes two minutes to go fifty feet maybe that’s how physics rule in Hollywood. Come on. Squish your boobs in the name of safety! Let me let you in on a little secret of real physics. If you’re in a bad accident and not wearing your seatbelt, they’re going to have to hose your ass out of the car. This is a fitting metephore for what happens when Democrats in congress try and tweak the rules and pass something that should never have passed regardless of what precedent that sets for the future use of the Constitution’s flexibility. Either they don’t know or don’t care. Both are highly likely.

Don’t let anyone tell you you’re paranoid or crazy for being safe or prepared for bad things to happen. If there is anything you learn from this book, I hope it is this. Ever hear, “luck favors the prepared”? The message of today towards preppers like me is more like, “What are you? A survivalist or something? Good luck with that.” Whatever happened to the romanticism of a “little survival place in the woods”? Now if you call yourself a “survivalist” or just happen to own a gun, (a big one), you’re a gun toting’, right-wing, white-surpremist, domestic-terrorist, communalist, seclusionist, fundamentalist, f-your-sister red-neck, Bible beater. I once invited all my gal pals to take part in the ladies’ night special at the local indoor gun range. I immediately got a Facebook retort referring me to a guns and violence awareness website. Tisk-tisk on me for suggesting such a horridly violent pastime! Who knew surviving or competition was a bad thing? It’s not like I said it was Happy Hour and then shooting with .45 calliber weapons! Geez. They totally don’t let you do that.

The liberal secularist philosophy says that the modern mode of thought is the only intelligent thought there is. Let me tell you what they’re worried about surviving. They learned about the age of reason in History and I guess were tapped out after that. Is that when they started teaching about Henry Marx? Anyway what you may not have paid attention to because it takes a lot of boring patience to learn, is that there have been intelligent people for thousands of years. Not just recently with the invention of the “smart phone.” Contrary to popular belief, smart people don’t just occur with the advancement of technology. Still, liberal secularists think History and following the laws written by people three hundred years ago (much less a couple thousand years ago) no longer apply to the world of today. They think they know better than those old conservative fogies from so long ago. They believe conservativism is outdated and totally uncool. “A waste of time.” “Not living in reality.” Those are just a couple of things I hear most often by those living hour to hour. “I just got a tattoo for $10!” That’s another one I hear a lot.

I think of it kind of like how a teenager thinks. I can see how living day to day instead can be very exciting and free feeling, but it’s not freedom. You know that “falling feels like flying, even for a little while …” Crazy Heart. I can certainly respect that philosophy some days. I’m a wife and a mother and it’s hard having to make important decisions every single day, all day long. Whether or not I choose to pay attention to what my kids are up to at any given moment can mean life or death for my toddlers. There’s no pressure on earth that can beat that.

Having things taken care of for you like welfare and free healthcare is also not freedom. It’s a death sentence. The more you let someone take care of the needs that you are capable of doing yourself only leads you to become reliant upon and subservient to them. In this case, once the government starts feeding you and giving you free healthcare, treating you like the zoo animal you’ve become; is that when you are really going start working harder? Is that going to make it easier to speak out against your government and/or zookeepers? In both instances the answer historically has been a big fat NO! We work harder when the benefits are as great or greater than the work we put in. No one will work harder if no extra is given for doing so. And if the government were to control say, everything like healthcare, the financial sectors, the automobile industry, the media and education we wouldn’t have a single word to say, would we?

But here we are at the crossroads. We have to choose a Republican to lead us through the dark. An old addege about the blind leading the blind comes to mind, however, we can no longer let the Pseudos message rein that conservatives are just poking fun at powerful liberal people. This complaint from the average quiet American is more than just a yapping response to the insolent left. We are hanging by a thread. This is about handing the decision about our entire ability to control ourselves. Are you ready to say you are the old lady who has fallen and can’t get up? Are you ready for the liberal Democrats to hand you your new nolife alert button to wear around your neck? Don’t worry, it will be intimately involved with all you do, go where ever you go and it’s waterproof! It sounds and looks like the most popular thing to do.

No! Wake up, Matilda! Obama wants to put you in a retirement home no matter how spry you think you are! Cut medicare? Why do that when their just going to make the whole damn thing medicare! Give everybody the prune plan! So, your only 25; don’t you want to live in an old folks home and have them feed you and tell you when to eat your meds? Why would we voluntarily do this? Has half the country already lost their minds? Well…

Have you ever thought about the significance of making people swear on the Bible when they take an oath of office or testify in a court of law? If it’s not the whole truth, it’s not the truth. That’s why there is still one place we say that, in court. So help us, God. So, help you, Casey Anthony. I mean, we all know most guilty people get up on the stand and say whatever it takes to keep themselves out of prison, especially those with a history of pathological lying. Who can blame them? If there was ever a time to use their Olympic level training in lying, it would be when they accidentally or not accidentally killed their child. But here’s the rub. They set up the tradition of being under oath to God during the testimony of a witness for a reason. It was not to intimidate the judged, for surely they knew not all criminals would believe in God, it was to insure final
justice just in case the human fallibility factor caused an incorrect verdict.

The oath itself is like a call to God to make him officially a witness to the testimony. When you swear on a Bible, you are officially saying to God you are not lying. When most people believed in God, this oath was enough to make a jury or judge believe a person. Not so anymore,
right. I’m here to remind you, all of you who have great hate in your heart for Casey Anthony, for all of you who wish you could take justice into your own hands, if you truly believe in God, let your heart not throw up. You should know she will be tried again when she dies by someone who knows how to dispense justice. There are certain sins that will not be forgiven. Among those few sins, I believe, one is when you testify to the truth in front of your peers in regards to a crime against humanity. Of course, I have no proof. Just like at the end of “Oh God, You Devil” there was no evidence that God was there in the courtroom, but everyone knew the truth. It was up to each individual to decide for themselves what they saw/heard. (Kind of like what a jury is supposed to do.)

I submit to you that you can have faith whenever our justice system fails us like we think it did on Tuesday. Those of us who commit the
unforgivable sin of lying to God directly in front of our fellow humans, especially after having beyond a reasonable doubt something to do with killing one of them, will go to hell in a hand basket. I don’t wish that on anyone; not even Miss Anthony. But that’s the beauty of having faith. I don’t have to dispense justice in this case. It’s not my job. You might say a Christian believes in forgiveness for everyone. This is true, but it is not necessarily the belief of God. Those who want forgiveness and believe, get forgiveness. Most of these unforgivable crimes against humanity are not done by people who would ever think to ask forgiveness from God because they do not believe in anyone but themselves, so it works out. Broken souls will go where broken souls belong…eventually. Whether the jury can detect the truth and do justice or not for the wronged in the courtroom becomes secondary. Once that sworn oath is taken, the believers know that God is being contracted to judge that oath taker and that really, it is the only justice that matters in the end.

The truth is …the government lies, the left lies, and the right lies. Of, course. We knew that. The only truth you need to worry about is that you are stuck in the middle and it’s your job to decipher what is right and what is wrong for you. You shouldn’t need anyone to tell you what is right and what is wrong. You need to be able to do it for yourself in an honestly valid manner. You need to take every opportunity and every right that you have to decipher this truth for yourself.

In this country you have the freedom to choose or not to choose. We can choose not to buy things like books and movies from murderers. We
have the right to listen to our instincts instead of lawyers. It is time to say goodbye to mistrust and misguided trust and say hello to a faith in our conservative traditions and logic we already have hopefully permanently interwoven into the major foundations of this great country.

Pseudos lesson: The Pseudos that is being passed on to the population is that there is no judgment day. There will never be a time when they will be held responsible for the things they get away with on this earth. Whatever you can get away with is now serving as the moral limit because that is what the Pseudos message is effectively conveying to people who want, more than anything, to get away with as much sin and avoid as much pain as humanly possible.

The hardest thing to deal with by far has been communicating with liberals. The forgiveness I’ve had has been drained and any reservations I had about feeding the fire fight between liberals and conservatives have been lifted. I just don’t know what to say anymore. My heart hurts. All in all, I’m thinking we should just give up on trying to do this whole communication thing, but for the moment let’s just pretend there is some “HOPE” left.

Since all of this really boils down to what you believe andhow willing you are to be honest about those beliefs, we might as well start stirring the vats. By now you have a pretty good idea what Pseudos might be. Let’s use the term itself, to call it out. It’s like pulling the “demon” out of a person who is spouting liberal antics they learned from the group. You can apply the word Pseudos to any person or entity that uses Pseudos. We should do this as often as possible. It’s better than calling liberals liars. That’s just not complicated enough for them. You’ll call, “Pseudos!” And they’ll say, “What?” Then you’ll explain, thus starting up a self-conscious conversation that is now based on the subject of being totally honest. What a novel idea.

I think it is essential to first understand the mentality of most of these people. I hate to generalize, but you know you can tell who they are. They are the ones who are most comfortable belonging to a group and are around groups of people as much as humanly possible. They are the iPhone gurus, the Facebook fanatical, and the people who twitter where they are and where they are going at all times. The group, (not to mention the newest technical device they use) makes them feel important.

Ann Coulter has a new book coming out called Demonic which underlines the group “mob” type of behavior that occurs when these kinds of people put their minds together. She says the mob attributes of liberals mirror a crowd’s inability to perceive contradictions and its tendency to form an infatuation for an individual. (Usually, an underdog, which I discuss in other articles.) This is totally how pseudos becomes most effective. If a person cannot deal with contradictions within complicated subjects, they opt for the easiest of answers. Or I guess I should say fall for what looks like the right answer, and/or fall for the leaders who fit the bill. For example, what liberal Democrat did not truly believe that John Edward hung the moon during the Kerry/Edwards campaign? I couldn’t for the life of me figure out why people couldn’t see how he was scum of all scum deep down inside. His history, how he made his money, how he made suing doctors a sport, said it all. Why is that kind of person put on a pedestal, all major flaws ignored, and real people, with real accomplishments and complicated ideals do not “fit the bill.” For example, in the liberal’s mind, Sarah Palin cannot be a feminist or a good person because she is both a woman and a Republican. They believe the only woman leader is a feminist leader, number one. And to be a feminist, one must first be a liberal and second, be for abortion. There is no in-between. Never mind that if she had aborted her last child she would have been burned at the stake by both feminists for special needs children and the anti-abortionists.

There is also the weird irony that Sara Palin seemingly can’t be trusted by liberals even though thanks to liberal reporting we now know every last detail about her down to how many stitches she got in her chode after the last child birth, I think. Okay, hopefully not, but you get my drift. Is there anything in her past worth fussing about? I mean, at all? Obama has a fraction of the criticism as well as a fraction of the personal information available through the liberal media that Sara Palin does.

How is this possible? I’ll tell you. He is, with all due respect to the President of my country, not a complicated person. He is a puppet by all senses of the word. He fits the bill for the liberal group. He in no way, makes the powers of the liberal group feel inferior, because they believe he is inferior to them and will do their bidding at will. This is what the liberal agenda is all about. This is why the liberal media continues to root for the underdog and will continue to encourage the rewarding of the underdog even if they are not working to deserve the win. May I remind everyone that the whole point of rooting for an underdog is the romantic feeling you get at the end of the race because you knew they worked harder than anyone else to get where they wanted. Not so with Obama. Not so with Edwards. Not so with Weiner. Not so with Pelosi. Conservatives tend not to worship idols. They expect leaders to work like slaves just like the rest of us.

A liberal world community has formed a very strong presence in today’s society, mostly thanks to those in the Democratic Party who have realized the media is the way to control what the people think about them. Bill Clinton was the first to realize that dominating radio must be a collective goal of the Democratic Party. He realized this when he heard his mother in-law was listening to Rush Limbaugh without really knowing who he was. Since then, the many different genres of media have been saturated with liberals’ funding and liberal minded talent. If you think of us all as a block or as a closer knit community as far as the information we share goes, we can see how we are more reliant upon this technology and media. We look to others more readily to see what we should do for ourselves. Unfortunately, technology and media can’t help you make a common sense decision in a crunch; especially if they aren’t around anymore, right? They can’t help you see the truth for yourself if it was tattooed on your coffee steward’s forehead.

This country is a big bad-ass plane that we all need to board as we travel forward into an already turbulent and unknown future. Ann Coulter, among others, has put a magnifying glass up to our war plane’s engine block and she is exposing the seemingly invisible cracks. We may look like we could rule the sky, but when you really choose to look a little more closely you’ll see we are going to crash and burn if we ever have to take off. I completely agree with this type of uninhibited, unapologetic exposure and am ready for people to thus find that psychological weapons, like Pseudos work best among crowds with these mob-like behavioral/mental weaknesses. This kind of behavior is the exact opposite of the people who founded this country. Do you think Thomas Jefferson had a problem appreciating the in between of black and white? Do you think he ever had a thought that did not stem from the very depths of uncertainty?

If you let the group decide what you want, you’re basically saying you would let any one of them think for you. Unless, everyone in the group belongs to MENSA or something, I’m not willing to take that risk. Actually, in the groups I’m talking about, no one from MENSA is allowed, because any person smart enough to be in MENSA certainly would make others feel inferior and that is not what the group wants. The group wants to feel good about itself, regardless if those individuals in the group are feeling good. The group is stupid, ignorant, naïve and the superiors of the group like it that way!

In my book, the way you win the game of “real life” is to not go with what the group wants even as you get more and more popular the “group” or “mob” is rarely right. Just a warning, smart people, or those who think for themselves are usually negatively labeled right off the bat, most often as “nerds”, and excluded from the group. Maybe it could sometimes be because of personal hygiene but, usually it’s because they are too smart.

Pseudos is everywhere because mainly, a disturbing trend among the mob is to alsoexclude complicated truths. These truths may include basics about where we come from, where we are headed as a country, and what a family means. You know, basically anything that has anything and everything to do with Christianity and/or religion. These truths also include advice to women, as any advice given by a man or a woman who respects men, or a person who points out inherent differences between men and women is seen as sexist and certainly not feminist. These truths also include warnings against bad people. You don’t dare tell a young beautiful girl not to go to New York or L.A. to pursue her destiny. Never mind that she has no skills and that she’ll be willing to sell her soul for a place to stay and a bite to eat within a week. Never mind that there are actual slave traders alive and well, just waiting for the next desperate girl to fall into their clutches. Yes, let’s never mind that girls are vulnerable and need protection. There, I said it. They should not be given make-up and high heels at five years old. Are you listening Tom Cruise? How about instead of printing logos on the butt cheeks of their little pants, why not just print a target? It’s getting easier and easier for people who hunt the innocent as they are but a figment of some paranoid parent’s imagination, right? Only the paranoid believe evil, accidents, and natural disasters actually happen in real life, right. Not just in the movies or in Twilight. For example, I have heard many a mother comment to other mothers about how their children should act when they encounter strangers. While they absolutely refuse to let their children ride the bus for fear of what kind of person may actually want to drive children to school every morning at the butt-crack of dawn, they say they tell their kids just because a strange person is technically a “stranger” it does not mean they are bad people and therefore the children should always act in a respectful/friendly manner towards them (the stranger) no matter what they look like. What ever happened to never, never talk to strangers?! “Hey mommy, that guy looks like a pedophile.” “Shhhh, Billy.” Mommy scowls. “Now go give that sweaty man a hug and say you’re sorry.”

We have chosen to decide for ourselves what kind of family we want, what kind of country we as individuals want, and exactly to what extent we are responsible for that. What we haven’t decided is, well, exactly how do we get that? How do we do that while still maintaining a respectful manner to everyone in the whole goddamn universe? We have lots of ideas that probably won’t work and won’t actually be executed anyway. In the meantime we do nothing in pursuit of those wants because we have something of a handicap when it comes to self-control and creating enough margin in our lives to buffer/survive in the stressful real world we conservatives like to call Earth. Most of us don’t know how to even recognize when we’re living on the edge until for many of us it’s too late. We don’t save anything. We don’t fix anything. We waste everything. Well, almost everything. We save and recycle garbage. My point is, we have found ourselves filled to the brim with information we are told is important. We do the things we are told are important, by people who want to be important themselves.

They rebel against the old, whether you are a man, woman or train of thought. Those old-school things don’t apply to us, now that we are more “advanced”. Old people just don’t understand anything do they? I don’t know. They are the only ones who know how to do some of the things that we once thought were important. If they’re gone who will teach us stuff? I don’t know, stuff like driving instead of typing on a miniature keyboard while your 3,000 lb. hybrid tries to make it to its next overdo oil change.

And all of these things that we do to keep our mind off such a troubled world leave little room for actually doing anything about the troubled world. I expect soon there will be an app. you can purchase from the App Store that will allow you to have your own personal jackass plan your every move. OR in a fitting piece of blasphemy they’ll invent a “What would Jesus do?” app. just to see if they could make an enormous, ironic stack of cheese off it. Sure they’ll take it off the market once thecontroversy wanes and profits begin to dwindle. Then what will you do.? When the jokes over, what is left, but a long awkward pause.

What’s left is a void of real social despair. No, I don’t mean like when Paris runs out of Valtrex or when P-Diddy can’t come up with a new name that rhymes with pee. I mean when people start getting hurt and the time for doing something to prevent it or even cure it has passed us by for good. It’s like the Nothing from the movie Then Never Ending Story sucking up and vaporizing every last particle of faith and imagination. Nothing is what is left and Pseudos is the prevailing falseness that fills the space. The Greek word Pseudos was a word understood and used in the first century for different types of deceptions. Specifically, using what the people believe to be the truth to communicate deception. Are we willing to work harder to find good leaders who will save us from ourselves? Are we willing to choose the hard way and complicated leaders with complicated (working) plans? No more rooting for the underdog because he makes us feel good about ourselves? Arewe really willing to do that?

“Opportunity is missed by most people because it’s dressed in overalls and looks like work”. — Thomas Edison